About Me

I was born on May 3, 1959 in Frankfort, Indiana. I began drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil and haven’t stopped since. As shy kid who never seemed to fit in, I created my own wonderful world on paper. My earliest interests were ballerinas and Cinderella, the latter was practically an obsession most of my childhood. I drew endless variations of that story. Paper dolls were also a favorite pastime, my mother kept me well supplied with store bought books. I often enlarged their wardrobes with costumes of my own, and of course created entire sets of my own. I delighted in dressing my paper ladies in elaborate dresses with fanciful trimmings, like glass lamp prisms!

Upon entering junior high, I pretty much left PDs & Cinderella behind. My interest in fancy clothes did not wane. I began studying period fashion in order to draw more authentic looking clothes. Throughout high school, I concentrated on refining the ‘old-fashioned’ look in my drawing as well as improving my basic skills. After graduation in 1977, I worked at McDonald’s for a while before I packed up a $500 car and moved to Ft. Lauderdale , Florida to attend art school. I graduated from The Art Institute Of Ft. Lauderdale in March,1982. Besides my Associate Of Science Degree in Fashion Illustration, I also garnered “Best Portfolio” and “Highest Achievement” awards. I came back to Indiana and worked as a free-lance artist for a few years. The income was sporadic at best and I seldom drew anything I was interested in. Fashion-related jobs were virtually non-existent.

Paper dolls reentered my life in fall of 1985. I had begun collecting vintage clothing by this time and was attending a vintage clothing show in Indianapolis. I met a paper doll collector there who suggested I try drawing paper dolls with a vintage theme. I played around with that idea but I had no way to publish them at the time. That all changed in November, 1987 when I read Sylvia Kleindinst’s advertisement for the Original Paper Doll Artist Guild in The Vintage Clothing Newsletter. I joined the Guild at once, and I can honestly say that it changed the direction of my art career for the better. I could at last draw old clothes to my heart’s content and share my work with people who were truly interested in it. If you’re interested check out Techniques of a Paper Doll Artist!

The real clincher was attending my first National Paper Doll Convention in 1988, where a whole world of collectors and artists that I never knew existed was opened up to me. I felt I had truly found my niche. From that point on, it has been a learning process of improving my paper doll artwork, dealing with printers and publishers, and building up a mail-order business. I began self -publishing black and white paper dolls after that fateful convention with “Lydia, An 1888 Bride”. My first full-color published paper doll appeared in the January, 1991 issue of Doll News.